A Dandenong-raised man has avoided jail after causing a victim’s profound head injury during a street-fight.
Sam Sua pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to recklessly causing injury.
In July 2023, during a night out, the then-27-year-old Sua and the reportedly intoxicated victim clashed on Church Street in Richmond.
The victim was swearing and acting aggressively, and lifted his arm as if to strike Sua.
The accused punched or pushed the victim to the lower face or collarbone area, causing him to fall backwards and hit the back of his head on the concrete footpath.
Sua and his friend tried to assist the semi-conscious victim, who was taken by ambulance to hospital, placed in an induced coma and underwent emergency surgery.
He suffered bleeding on the brain, a collapsed lung and a fractured skull. He spent nine months at hospital and a rehabilitation centre, and is under full-time care of his partner.
The victim can no longer read or write, has lost a lot of functioning on the right-side of his body and requires a walking frame.
A GP stated the man was unemployable due to severe memory loss and communication difficulties, and “no chance” of returning to his former life.
In his victim impact statement, the man described the burden some days as “too much and I collapse into tears”. His dreams for the future, including being a father, were gone.
“I grieve every day for the man I used to be, for the life I had, and for the life I should have had.”
In sentencing on 1 October, judge Angela Ellis noted Sua pleaded guilty at an early stage, despite a potential self-defence argument.
Sua didn’t make an unprovoked attack on an unsuspecting victim but she said “any sort of street violence is unacceptable” and the consequences were “devastating”.
“As you are by now well aware, the outcomes can be extremely grave when another human being is assaulted.
“The risk of a victim hitting their head on the concrete is high and this can lead to devastating and often fatal consequences.”
Sua’s limited priors included a Supreme Court community correction order in 2016 for common law assault.
Born in New Zealand, Sua was raised by his grandparents in financial hardship in Melbourne, went to school in Dandenong and binge-drank as a teen.
Judge Ellis said Sua had “good” rehabilitation prospects, given he’d engaged in counselling, showed genuine remorse, stable employment and had a significant gap in criminal offending.
Prosecutors agreed with calls for a CCO rather than jail given the “unusual circumstances”.
Sua was convicted and placed on a three-year CCO, including 300 hours of unpaid work and treatment.
